ing else you want to do, Mr.
Ford; but I'll confess you've aroused my curiosity. What is the matter
with the MacMorroghs?"

Ford answered the question by asking another.

"Do you know them, Mr. Eckstein?"

"Why--yes; as Mr. North's chief clerk would be likely to know the firm
of contractors which has been given a good share of the Pacific
Southwestern work for a number of years."

"Do you know any good of them?"

"Bless me! yes: I don't know anything else of them. Three hearty, bluff,
rough-tongued Irishmen; lacking diplomacy and all the finer touches, if
you like, but good fellows and hustlers of the keenest."

Ford fastened his companion in a steady eye-grip. "One question, Mr.
Eckstein; do they play fair with all concerned?"

"They are more than fair; they are generous--with the company, and with
the company's representatives with whom they have to do business. On two
contracts with us they have lost money; but I happen to know that in
both instances they kept their promises to the engineering department to
the letter."

Ford had cast off the eye-grip and he appeared to be studying the fresco
design of the ceiling over the private secretary's head.

"And those promises were--?"

Eckstein laughed boyishly. "You needn't make a mystery of it with me,
Mr. Ford. I'm one of the family, if I haven't any initials after my
name. I know--we all know--that there are certain profits--not made out
of the company, of course--that a contractor is always willing to share
with his good friends, the engineers."

Ford's attitude instantly became that of a freshman wishing to learn the
ropes.

"Consider me, Mr. Eckstein," he said. "I'm new to the construction
business--or at least, I've never been at the head of it before. What
are these--er--perquisites?"

The private secretary thought he had entered the thin edge of the wedge
and he drove it heartily.

"They are perfectly legitimate, of course. The contractors run a
commissary to supply the workmen--nobody suspects them of doing it at
cost. Then there are the fines imposed to secure faithful work, the _per
capita_ commission paid on the labor sent in by the engineers, the
discounts on time-checks, the weekly hospital and insurance dues
collected from the men. All those things amount to a good round profit
on a contract like ours."

"To about how much, in figures, should you say?" queried Ford, with an
air of the deepest interest.

"To enough to make your share, a